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July 6, 2008

G91: Yankees 5, Red Sox 4 (10)

This contest evolved from a game I thought the Red Sox had pretty well in hand to a toss-up to a loss. Boston is now 5 GB the white-hot Rays.

Wakefield was fantastic (again!) for 5.1 innings, allowing only two baserunners to the first 18 New York hitters: Kabbalah McBluelips's home run leading off the second and a walk to Giambi to begin the fifth.

Boston struck for three runs off Joba in the top of the fifth: Youkilis and Casey singled and Crisp walked. Ball four to Ococ was a wild pitch that scored Yook (who slid into JtC's right leg and then had a pitch thrown behind his ass his next time up). After Lugo and Cash struck out, Ellsbury walked and Pedroia singled in two more runs. 3-1 Sox.

With one out in the sixth, Wakefield allowed a single to Gardner, who stole second and scored on Jeter's RBI single. CI took second on an errant pick-off throw, but was doubled off when Lugo leapt skyward to haul in Abreu's line drive.

Lugo again got the best of Jetes a few minutes later when, in the top of the seventh, he got credit for an infield single up the middle and took second on an error by the Yankee captain, who (uncharacteristically) ranged far to his left to snare the grounder. Cash followed with a line drive double into the left field corner and Boston led 4-2.

A-Rod singled to open the seventh against Wakefield and after Timmeh retired HGH on a flyball, Tito went wisely to the pen. But Lopez was not sharp. After Posada singled, Cano tripled in both runners to tie the game. After a fielder's choice nailed Cano at the plate, Delcarmen came in to fan Molina.

In the top of the ninth, facing Rivera, Casey singled and went to second on Crisp's bunt. Varitek was sent up to hit for Lugo (why?) and he shattered his bat on the first pitch, tapping weakly back to the mound. Casey went to third, but he died there as Manny, hitting for Cash, stood stock still and looked at three straight strikes to end the inning.

MDC pitched a perfect eighth, Okajima matched him in the ninth, and Papelbon came on for the 10th. Cano grounded an 0-2 pitch into center field for a leadoff single. Milk Dud bunted him to second and Bot blew Betemit away with pure heat. Gardner fell behind 0-2 but fouled off two pitches, took two balls, then fouled off another heater. On the 8th pitch of the at-bat, he grounded a ball up the middle. Cora dove to his left, deflecting the ball into short center, but neither Pedroia nor Crisp could make a play as Cano scored the winning run.

Tampa topped the Royals 9-2 and lead the East (and Red Sox) by a whopping five games. New York remains 9 GB.

has allowed just one earned run in his last 15 outings (15.2 innings). You can go back even further - in his last 28 appearances, he has allowed just three earned runs in 25 innings, an ERA of 1.08. His ERA of 2.10 ranks in the top five among AL relievers with 30 innings or more.

Lopez still has too many walks - 14 in 34.1 innings - but many of those came early. He's walked just three in his last 11 appearances.

On this current three-city road trip, the Red Sox have produced 13 bases-loaded situations. However, Boston is 1-for-11 with only three runs scored, including a sacrifice fly. In fact, the Sox are 0-for-their-last-9 with the bases juiced.

Overall, they are 1-for-19 with one walk, four sacrifice flies, and eight strikeouts and have grounded into two double plays in their last 24 bases-loaded situations.

It sure is worse. That's disgraceful, and a gift to all the Sox bashers. Admittedly, with Posada not able to catch much, Martinez and Ivan Rodriguez hurt (and he's not really an All-Star either), the choices are thin. But still---if I were Tek, I'd decline politely. Tito's loyalty is touching, but in this case as in others, stupid.

yeah, buster olney described player voting as them forced to fill out the cards and calling out in the clubhouse "who should i vote for catcher?"and someone randomly calling out in response "uh..varitek?""yeah...varitek."

1) They are on a high right now and playing over their heads. The crash is coming, however. It always does.

2) They are playing KC, which is just coming down after playing over ITS head...

3) They are going through a bunch of games where mediocre players are getting key hits with two outs, as opposed to the Sox, who aren't.

4) They are a good team. But not .800 ball good. My guess is that they'll play .500 ball after the break---good enough for the play-offs, but not to beat the Sox. The bullpen will come back to earth, and the hitting is just so-so.

i have identified 16 different posts under at least 5 different personas he left at 9 different blogs overnight last night -- this total does not count the ones that got removed by various blog owners -- and i mean all night:

8:17 PM to 4:59 AM

thanks the low traffic at many of these blogs in the middle of the night, i now know where his IP server is. i got him on the run and i will smoke him out of his cave.

.ish, I recently lost a LOT of pics thanks to my laptop dying. It stu-diddly-unk.

Yep, had that happen three years ago. The computer knows there is a card in there, but it won't recognize it at the same time. Very confusing. My camera says the card is damaged. So, I'm not convinced the data is gone.

I'll say it for the millionth time: Getting 25,000 of your own fans to drown out the 20,000 fans rooting for the other team is NOT impressive. I can't believe that the visual portion of that Rays report actually needed to stay on the screen while the game was going on.

Kefir from the store is nasty (I don't know if that's what you're referring to). The trick is the culture which is in the form of 'grains', which are like boogery clumps. They look gross, but you separate them into your next batch.

The host was complaining that1) baseball games were too long2) baseball was, therefore, losing popularity3) small market teams can't contend4) in this economy (?!?!) people would rather devote their time to football because it's only 16 games

My replies were, basically, No, No, No, & No. To the host's credit, he didn't cut me off, but he continued to repeat his baseless opinion without actually fact-checking himself.

My girlfriend and I are starting our own blog inspired by something we saw someone else do in (I think) Washington DC - we're gonna take a picture of ourselves at every stop on the "T," Boston's subway system

That's cool. I always want to do the "picture of something everywhere" thing - but I usually think of it after I've passed some opportunities that I can't get back, and will be incomplete... so I don't.

I love this team. And the Rays cannot keep this bullshit up. They are not that good. I am sorry L (you always attack when I say the rays suck ass) but this rays team is not this good. They are all just in a groove at the same time. watch them implode soon.

I am chafing at the announcing on this game. I know I've heard 'em before, but for some reason it's more painful today. Of course Joba's pitches are strikes...whoah can you believe that Wakefield threw a strike? ug.